City Demographic Profile

Population Trends

Bellevue is the fifth largest city in Washington State with a population of 140,700 in 2017, which is projected to reach 160,400 by 2035.

Bellevue Population 1953 to 2017 and 2035 Forecast

Source: Population estimates prior to 2000 and the 2035 forecast are from the City of Bellevue's Department of Planning and Community Development. Estimates from 2000 forward are from Washington State's Office of Financial Management. Official population estimates are for April 1st of the specified year.

Cultural Diversity

With over 39 percent of its population having been born in a foreign country in 2015, Bellevue is culturally diverse with about 50 percent of its population being of a minority race or ethnicity and 42 percent speaking a language other than English at home. Asians comprise just over 34 percent of Bellevue’s population, which is the tenth highest percentage in the nation for cities with 100,000 in population or more and the highest percentage of large cities outside of California and Hawaii.

Population Change Native & Foreign Born, 1990-2015

Source: U.S. Census Bureau 1990, 2000 Decennial Census and 2010 American Community Survey.

Race/Ethnicity Distribution, 2015

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey

Age Diversity

In addition to being culturally diverse, Bellevue has a diversity of people of different ages living within the city. As baby boomers turn 65, older adults are comprising a larger proportion of Bellevue’s population resulting in a gradual evening out of Bellevue‘s age distribution. Under 20 year olds comprise about 22 percent of the population, the younger workforce ages 20 to 39 about 29 percent, the older workforce ages 40 to 59 about 29 percent and people 60 and over comprise another 20 percent of the population.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2014 American Community Survey.

Economic Diversity

Educational Attainment

Education is highly valued among Bellevue’s residents as witnessed by the ever increasing share of people with bachelor’s degrees or higher. About 66 percent of Bellevue’s population 25 years and older had a Bachelor’s degree or higher in 2015, half of whom had a graduate or professional degree.

Source:U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey.

Occupations

Having a large share of adults who have high levels of educational attainment, Bellevue has also had a large share of workers who are in management, business, science and arts occupations, at about 61 percent in 2015. About another 15 percent worked in sales and office occupations, 14 percent in service occupations, six percent in production, transportation and material moving occupations and about three percent in natural resource, construction and maintenance occupations.

Source:U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey.

Earnings and Household Income

While median earnings and household incomes were relatively high in Bellevue at $56,121 and $98,804 in 2015 respectively, a range of earnings and incomes existed. About 36 percent of Bellevue’s working residents earned less than $35,000 a year and about 24 percent of Bellevue’s households had incomes less than $50,000 a year. About 7.1 percent of Bellevue’s population were in poverty in 2015.

Source:U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey.

Households and Housing Diversity

Household Types and Sizes

A diversity of household types exists within Bellevue with single person households comprising the largest share at 28 percent of all households in 2015 followed by married couples without children at 27 percent and married couples with children at 24 percent. The average household size was 2.43 people per household in 2015.

Household Type Distribution

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey.

Structure Type Distribution - Units per Structure

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey

Housing Structure Types and Sizes

A range of housing types exists in the city to house Bellevue’s diverse population. In 2015, about 49 percent of Bellevue’s housing stock was in single family detached structures, another 10 percent was in town home, duplex, triplex and fourplexes and the remaining 40 percent of housing units were in structures with five or more units. About 53 percent of Bellevue’s occupied housing units were owner occupied and 47 percent are renter occupied in 2015.

The number of bedrooms in housing units also varies in Bellevue. In 2015, about five percent of units in the city were studios with no bedroom and about eight percent had five bedrooms or more, but the rest were about evenly split with 16 percent of units having one bedroom, 26 percent having two bedrooms, 22 percent having three bedrooms and 22 percent having four bedrooms.

Housing Costs

The monthly cost of housing in Bellevue varies as well. In 2015, the median cost for households without a mortgage was about $800 a month. Households with a mortgage paid a median of $2,689 a month and households that rented paid a median of $1,693 a month. About 37 percent of renters spent 30 percent or more of their incomes on housing. Households with a mortgage followed with about a third spending 30 percent or more and households without a mortgage have the smallest share of cost burdened households at about 14 percent. Overall, about 30 percent of Bellevue’s households were spending 30 percent or more of their incomes on housing in 2015.

More Detail

On the rest of these pages you will find more detail about Bellevue's demographic, social, economic and housing characteristics, as well as a summary of demographic trends. Demographic profiles for Bellevue's neighborhood areas will be coming soon.